Week 1 - The Arrival
Shaun Tan's The Arrival is a beautifully illustrated story tackling themes of immigration, isolation and adapting to a foreign landscape. There have been multiple published stories out there that tell the story of an immigrant trying to fit into a new society, but very few are as inventive as this one.
I knew this was going to be something special very early on when my expectations were immediately subverted within the first few pages. When the protagonist leaves his family, we start as if it were an ordinary story with ordinary people characters. However, the moment they step outside of their home, everything changes. We see their world featuring rough, scribbled, broken homes along with mysterious spiked silhouettes that give the impression of instability and possibly danger. This is where I started to wonder, "where could this story be going?" Fast forward to the scene where our protagonist steps off the ship, my immediate thought is that we were going to see the Statue of Liberty or a recognizable city symbol. But instead were pulled into a beautifully crafted world that’s just as exotic to us as it is to the characters in the story. What I love most about this story is Tan's ability to enchant the readers through his sense of wonder. He takes a simple story that seems pretty familiar and goes the extra mile by bringing not only the characters, but his audience along for the journey.
The story has almost no words at all and is quite simple at its core. I believe that this is a brilliant way to tell the story as it encouraged me to be more involved with what was going on. I see the lack of words in the story as a way to connect with all people, whether it would be with immigrants or citizens. Since immigration is universal and happening in almost every country, the environments presented in the story could represent anywhere in the world. The language the characters are speaking could be any language, but its up to us to decide which it is.
The characters are easily able to tell the story not with words, but instead through strong gestures and action poses. Every gesture is clear and concise and we always know what each character wants or is trying to say. The staging and composition is also something to be admired. The story introduces us to a handful of unusual animals, machines, and buildings that are rendered in a beautiful and intricate manner and add to the absurdity of the new world. The panels are arranged in a way that makes it seem cinematic/like I'm watching an old silent movie.
The Arrival demonstrates that you don't need words to tell stories as long as the drawings/images presented to us perfectly convey the situation. This was a great graphic novel that proves that sometimes showing is better than telling. I look forward to reading more stories like this throughout the rest of the class and hopefully getting to explore more of Shaun Tan's work in the future.
I knew this was going to be something special very early on when my expectations were immediately subverted within the first few pages. When the protagonist leaves his family, we start as if it were an ordinary story with ordinary people characters. However, the moment they step outside of their home, everything changes. We see their world featuring rough, scribbled, broken homes along with mysterious spiked silhouettes that give the impression of instability and possibly danger. This is where I started to wonder, "where could this story be going?" Fast forward to the scene where our protagonist steps off the ship, my immediate thought is that we were going to see the Statue of Liberty or a recognizable city symbol. But instead were pulled into a beautifully crafted world that’s just as exotic to us as it is to the characters in the story. What I love most about this story is Tan's ability to enchant the readers through his sense of wonder. He takes a simple story that seems pretty familiar and goes the extra mile by bringing not only the characters, but his audience along for the journey.
The characters are easily able to tell the story not with words, but instead through strong gestures and action poses. Every gesture is clear and concise and we always know what each character wants or is trying to say. The staging and composition is also something to be admired. The story introduces us to a handful of unusual animals, machines, and buildings that are rendered in a beautiful and intricate manner and add to the absurdity of the new world. The panels are arranged in a way that makes it seem cinematic/like I'm watching an old silent movie.
The Arrival demonstrates that you don't need words to tell stories as long as the drawings/images presented to us perfectly convey the situation. This was a great graphic novel that proves that sometimes showing is better than telling. I look forward to reading more stories like this throughout the rest of the class and hopefully getting to explore more of Shaun Tan's work in the future.
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